I like dachshunds, you like chickens.

George Egerton-Warburton & David Capra

David Capra: George, we both seem to be interested in working with animals. I like dachshunds, you like chickens. Why?

George Egerton-Warburton: I’ve always thought about the transactional relationship between humans and animals, first in agriculture, extensively and in an intensive, domestic context. Lately it hasn’t been so much of an intention for animals to feature in my work but they have emerged as role models for a way of unmediated thinking. Specifically, I made a video of a chicken observing a series of sculptures I made for it to interact with. The audio consisted of me imitating a burglar being attacked by a police dog, as heard from a CB radio in my kitchen. After shaking hands with the burglar, it was troubling to hear him run down by the dog, however I was also happy for the dog being able to fulfill his instincts, and felt it necessary to empathise with both of them. In the video, the chicken was disinterested with both the sounds and the sculptures. This drew on the limiting potential of education and the way we are groomed into certain roles without our knowledge of it even happening.